“Plastic House on Base of Sky” by Kayo Dot

The Boston Avant-Garde band once again delivers an album that is thought provoking and intriguing, always crafting new sounds and retaining their experimental approach.. “Plastic House on Base of Sky” delves quite deep in electronic and gothic influences – a sound that at times can be reminiscent of The Cure, while retaining their trademark fusion of diverse music styles.

The band as a whole performs very well as always, striking a good balance between instruments and vocals, managing to create a coherent result. Drummer Keith Abrams delivers rhythmic complexity, creating a solid background for the rest of the instruments, including quite a few memorable bass lines. Guitar is not such a dominant instrument in this releases – it is keyboards that tend to become more often the leading instrument while guitars often will take the role of co-lead. The vocals mostly focus on delivering an eerie atmosphere, one which is aided by the lyrics that are usually really free in terms of structure and meaning, focusing mostly on a poetic approach.

Production value is very high on mood. It is not an album featuring a crystal-clear sound, but rather one that has a lingering darkness, some less filtered effects and at times some crude drumming. The result might be a bit too unfamiliar or unsettling for a listener who is not really into this more experimental approach of music, thus one might need some time in order to fully appreciate the whole album. Definitely it is a record which demands a 2nd (or even 3rd and 4th) listening in order to get accustomed to it and enjoy it to the maximum.

“Plastic House on Base of Sky” offers to the listener something unique, a very interesting redefinition in their sound, something that I really appreciate in bands, especially when they belong to the Avant-Garde scene. It is well understood that many might dislike it (as it happens with many experimental records) but it is truly a spectacular album, one of the best of the genre released in 2016.